The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-01-09
The Eloquent Tribute by a
Newspaper Man.
PRETTY PEN PICI URE.
The South is Loyal to the Union, But
has Nothing to Take
Back.


New South" asked all present to unite
in welcoming guest from Georgia. Mr.
Grady was received with great applause.
After it had died away he said:
Mr.. President: "There was South Of
slavery and secession; that South is
dead; oil union and freedom, that South
thank God is living, breathing, growing
every hour" These words, delivered
from the lips of Benjamin H. Hill in
your Tammany Hall in 1866, true then
and truer now, shall make my text to
night.
But before going into that, Mr.. Presi
dent, let me express to you my appre-
citation of the kindness by which am
permitted to address you to night.
make this brief acknowledgment ad-
visedly, for l feel that if, when | raise
my provincial voice in this ancient and
august presence, | could find courage
for any more than the opening sentence
it would be well if, after that sentence
l had met in rough sense my obliga-
ton as guest, and had persisted, so to
speak, with courtesy on my lips and
grace in my heart, (Laughter.) Per-
United, through your kindness, to catch
my second wind, let me say that l ap-
preciate the significance of being the
first Southerner to speak at this board
which bears the substance, if it serves
the semblance, of original New England
hospitality. (Applause.) That honors
the sentiment that in turn honors you
Vorcnnolifxy 10
that holds deeper Significance even thaa
wolves vast and perplexing tragedy OF
dreamed, and fullness of reconcilia-
omprehended-snd certainly carries
with it banquet SO full of vanities
that for the mere sitting down to it he
would have sliced off our ears close to
our pampered and voluptuous joWls.
(Laughter.)
In speaking to the toast with which
you have honored me, l accept the
words, THE New South" as no dispar-
agement to those who have gone before
RE. Dear to me, sir, are the home of
ny childhood and the traditions of my
people. There is a new South, not
through protest against the old, but be
cause of new conditions, new adjust
ments and, if you please, new ideas and
aspirations. 1t is to this that l address
myself. l ask you, gentlemen, to pic
ture if you can the footsore soldier, who,
buttoning up in his faded gray Jacket
| the parole, testimony to his children of
his fidelity and faith, turned his face
southwark from Appomatox in April
| 1865. Ragged, half-starved, and in de-
feat he surrenders his gun, wrings the
hands of his comrades, and, lifting his
| tear-stainod and pallid face for the last
| time to the graves that dot the old Vir-
ginia hills, pulls his gray cap over MS
brow and begins the slow and painful
journey. What does he fnd-let me
ask you, who went home eager to find
all the welcome you had justly earned
full payment for four years sacrifice
what does he find when he reaches the
home he left five years before2 He finds
his house in ruins, his farm devastated,
his slaves free, his stock killed. his barns
empty, his trade destroyed, his money
worthless his social system, feudal in
Its magniticence, swept away, his people
without law CT legal status, his own
ranks Geclmated, and the burdens OF
others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed
by defeat, his very traditions are gone.
Without money, credit, employment,
material, or training-and with all
this, confronted with the gravest pro-
blem that ever met human intelligence
the establishing of a status for the
vast body of his liberated slaves.
What does he do-this soldier in gray
with heart of gold-does he sit down
in sullenness aud despair? Not for
day. Surely God. who had scourged
him in his prosperity, inspired him III
his adversely! AS ruin was never before
s6oVerwhelming, never was restoration
sWlfter. The soldier stepped from the
trenches into the furroW, horses that
had charged Federal guns marched be-,
fore the pillow, and fields that ran red
with human blood in April were green
with the harvest in June. Women
reared in luxury cut up their dresses and
made trousers for their husbands, and
with a patience and heroism that fit
women always give their hands to work.
There was little bitterness in all this.
and frankneSs prevailed. |
want to say TO General Sherman-he is
considered an able man in our parts,
though some people think he is kind
of careless man about fire-tbat from
the ashes left US in 1864 we have raised
a brave and beautiful city; that some
how or other we have caught the sun
shine in the bricks and mortar of our
homes and have builded therein not one
single ignoble prejudice on memory.
(Applause.)
But what have we. done? We have
found out that in the general summing
up the free negro counts more than he
did as q slave, and that freedom has ele-
waited our stature as it elevated his We
have planted the school house on the
hill top and made 1t free to white and
black. We have several towns and
CT les in the place of theories. and put
business above politics. (Applause.)
We have challenged your spinners in
and our ironmakers IN
But what OF the negro?
Have we solved the problem he pre-
sents or pr crossed in honor and equity
toward its soluhon2 Let the record
speak to the point. No section now
shows more prosperous laboring popu-
lation than the negroes of the South.
more in full sympathy with the EN-
p!oyer. He shares our school fund. has
the fullest protection of our laws, and
the friendship of our people. Self-in-
terest, as we'll as honor, demand that he
should have this